He did it again!

Zac ran the Pony Express Trail 50 Mile race again!

(this pic is from when he first arrived home. I do believe he might actually be using the walls to support himself up) He finished this year in 9 hrs 20 min (30 min faster than last year).

I was just so relieved not to have to be his crew. You wouldn't even believe how relieved I was. He recruited a coworker/friend (boss) who does Ironman triathlons to be his support crew. And then another coworker who has done a 50-miler offered to drive all the way out there and just support and run along with Zac for the last 20 miles or so. I am so thankful to both of them for being there for my husband to do something I cannot!!

As much as I try to support him in all his endeavors . . . well I just can't be there for him for this one.

So these are pics taken by Tim:
(Zac in the red jacket and then white t-shirt with white hat)

This year he had a lot of really bad charly-horse/leg cramping - possibly related to not getting enough salt, despite his salt tablets. He tried eating some different things this time, and did more walking breaks - but he'd also had some IT-band problems in the weeks leading up to the race and actually stayed off his legs completely for 2 wks beforehand to try to heal that up (doing elliptical and crazy 4+hr spin bike sessions instead). So it's hard to know for sure what caused the problems. I guess with these really long ultra races, you just never really know what you're going to get when you run it. The weather, your food intake, salts, fluids, any number of factors could drastically affect your end result on race day. At any rate, he is happy that he did better this time. And also happy that he only dry-heaved once and didn't vomit at all this year! wohoo! Way to go Zac!!! ;)

(and he's getting really revved up about trying the 100 mile in the next year or 2! I don't even try to comprehend this mentality. Seriously. But I love him to death for it.) :)